Pope Francis

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Pope Francis delivers his Urbi et Orbi blessing after celebrating Easter Mass at St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican Sunday, April 4, 2021, during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Filippo Monteforte/Pool photo via AP)

In Easter speech, pope calls wars in pandemic ‘scandalous’

By FRANCES D'EMILIO - Associated Press

Pope Francis celebrates the Easter Vigil in a nearly empty St. Peter's Basilica as coronavirus pandemic restrictions stay in place for a second year running, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Remo Casilli/Pool photo via AP)

Pope urges hope amid ‘darkness’ of pandemic in Easter vigil

By NICOLE WINFIELD - Associated Press

Pope Francis leads the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession in the empty square outside the Saint Peter's Basilica during Good Friday celebrations at the Vatican, with no public participation due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Friday, April 2, 2021. (Angelo Carconi/Pool photo via AP)

Pope on Good Friday hears children tell of pandemic losses

By FRANCES D'EMILIO - Associated Press

Cardinals attend a Chrism Mass celebrated by Pope Francis inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Thursday, April 1, 2021. During the Mass the Pontiff blesses a token amount of oil that will be used to administer the sacraments for the year. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, pool)

Pope opens final Holy Week services, skips Last Supper rite

Associated Press

Pope grants German archbishop faulted over abuse ‘time out’

Associated Press

Pope Francis celebrates Palm Sunday Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (Giuseppe Lami/Pool photo via AP)

Pope on pandemic’s second year: Weariness, economic hardship

By FRANCES D'EMILIO - Associated Press

FILE - In this April 24, 2018 file photo, clergy sex abuse survivor and victim's advocate Juan Carlos Cruz, from Chile, is interviewed by The Associated Press, outside the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, in Rome, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Pope Francis on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 named Cruz, who helped uncover a clerical sex abuse scandal, to a Vatican commission which advises the pontiff on how to protect children from pedophile clergy. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)

Pope taps Chilean sex abuse whistleblower for Vatican panel

By FRANCES D'EMILIO - Associated Press

Cardinals listen as Pope Francis, background, delivers his Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019. Pope Francis has ordered pay cuts for Holy See employees, including slashing cardinals’ salaries by 10%. Francis in a letter made public by the Vatican on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, noted that the pandemic emergency “negatively impacted all sources of revenue” for the Holy See and Vatican City State. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Pope, citing pandemic effect, cuts pay for cardinals, others

By Frances E'Emilio - Associated Press

Pope decries lack of access to drinking water for many

Associated Press

A nun stands in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 21, 2021. Pope Francis has denounced racism, likening it to a virus that lurks in waiting and continues to be shameful. Francis in a tweet on Sunday called racism “a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.” (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope decries shame of racism, like ‘virus’ lurking in wait

Associated Press

FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2014 file photo, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican to attend the weekly general audience held by Pope Francis. A second Catholic cardinal has questioned the legitimacy of a recent decree by the Vatican to restrict the celebration of the old Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and forbid private Masses in its side chapels. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the retired Holy See doctrine chief, said the Vatican Secretariat of State had neither the legal nor the theological right to decide such liturgical matters in St. Peter’s. He called the decree “very strange” and said “nobody is obliged to obey it.” (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini/file)

Vatican pressed on decree limiting Latin Mass in St. Peter’s

By NICOLE WINFIELD - Associated Press

FILE - In this May 21, 2015 file photo, Mauro Cioffari, left, puts a wedding ring on his partner Davide Conti's finger as their civil union is being registered by a municipality officer during a ceremony in Rome's Campidoglio Capitol Hill. The Vatican has decreed, Monday, March 15, 2021, that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.” The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)

Vatican cardinals defend gay union blessing ban amid dissent

By NICOLE WINFIELD - Associated Press

Anti-coup protesters test improvised weapons made to fight with government security forces in Yangon, Myanmar, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (AP Photo)

Pope says he symbolically kneels in plea for Myanmar peace

Associated Press

Pope Francis celebrates Mass on the occasion of 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 14, 2021. (Tiziana Fabi/Pool photo via AP)

Vatican excludes gay union blessing as God ‘can’t bless sin’

By Nicole Winfield - Associated Press

FILE -- In this Feb. 2, 2021 file photo, Pope Francis celebrates a Mass with members of religious institutions on the occasion of the celebration of the World Day of Consecrated Life, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The Vatican has decreed, Monday, March 15, 2021, that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.” The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, pool)

LGBTQ Catholics stung by Vatican rebuff of same-sex unions

By DAVID CRARY and LUIS ANDRES HENAO - Associated Press

Pope Francis blesses the crowd as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 14, 2021. The pope offered prayers for Syria during his blessing, noting that a decade has passed since the start of the “bloody conflict in Syria.” (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope renews appeal for Syria on 10th anniversary of conflict

Associated Press

Pope Francis speaks to journalists, Monday, March 8, 2021, while flying back to The Vatican at the end of his four-day trip to Iraq where he met with different Christian communities and Shiite revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. (AP Photo/Yara Nardi, pool)

Pope Francis to visit Hungary in September, cardinal says

Associated Press

Iraqi Christians say goodbye to Pope Francis after an open air Mass at a stadium in Irbil, Iraq, Sunday, March 7, 2021. Thousands of people filled the sports stadium in the northern city of Irbil for Pope Francis' final event in his visit to Iraq: an open-air Mass featuring a statue of the Virgin Mary that was restored after Islamic militants chopped of the head and hands. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

After historic whirlwind visit, Pope Francis leaves Iraq for Rome

By Nicole Winfield and Samya Kullab - Associated Press

Surrounded by shells of destroyed buildings people arrive to join Pope Francis who will pray for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. The long 2014-2017 war to drive IS out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north of Iraq, all sites Francis visited on Sunday. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The Latest: Pope meets father of drowned Syrian refugee boy

Associated Press

Pope Francis, center, leaves Mar Youssef Church in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 6, 2021. Pope Francis and Iraq's top Shiite cleric delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence Saturday, urging Muslims in the war-weary Arab nation to embrace Iraq's long-beleaguered Christian minority during a historic meeting in the holy city of Najaf. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Where IS ruled, pope calls on Christians to forgive, rebuild

By NICOLE WINFIELD and SAMYA KULLAB - Associated Press